Celebrate Independence Day with Indian Street Food

The best way to celebrate any festival of a country is through it’s street food. Let’s check out how Indians come down on the streets to celebrate with loud music, dance, colorful parades and Indian Street Food. I love Indian Food <3 <3

Pakoras - Pakoras are Indian fritters, originated from Uttar Pradesh, that are made up of gram flour. These are crisp and fried snacks made up of different vegetables like potatoes, onion, spinach, mix-veg etc. The filling may also consist of bread, cottage cheese slices etc. The gram flour batter includes chopped green chillies, salt, pepper, turmeric, garlic paste, hot Indian spices etc. Nevertheless, it is considered as one of the best street foods or finger food and makes great party appetizers as well. Any big or small get together is incomplete without pakoras. It can be paired with tomato chutney (Indian homemade sauce) or green chilly chutney.

Dosa - Dosa is another street food that has originated from South India. Dosa is an Indian pancake or crispy savory fermented crepe. It is made up of rice and black lentils batter. The stuffing may consist of spicy potato mixture, onion mixture, cottage cheese mixture or combinations of two or more mixtures put together, the thought makes me feel hungry :P. Dosa is paired with two types of chutneys, coconut-herb chutney or peanut chutney. Though the recipe is popular in South India, with time it has gained popularity throughout India. Indian restaurants in abroad do serve Dosa, which is loved by many local people out there.

Chaat - Chaat is a crispy, sweet and sour snacks made up of round flat and crisp flour fritters. This is accompanied by beaten curd, boiled sliced potatoes and special tamarind sauce, green chilli sauce, Indian tomato sauce. There are various combination of chaat such as ‎Papdi chaat, Samosa Chaat, Spicy sweet Corn Chaat , Aloo Chana Chaat etc. I have described Papdi chaat here. Special chaat masala(mixture of Indian spices) is sprinkled over sauces and curd. Though the origin is Uttar Pradesh, the hawkers and vendors have stalls throughout India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Aloo Tikki - Aloo stands for potato and tikki means small cutlet. The crisp potato cutlets are pan-fried or deep fried and served with the topping same as that of chaat. Though this recipe is famous in North India, it is loved by people throughout the country.

Kachori - Kachori is puffed up and flaky from outside and hollow from inside. In this, the filling sticks to the crust of the fritter from inside. The dough is made up of hard wheat flour. There are various types of kachori like peas kachori, potato kachori, onion kachori etc. It is served with different types of spicy Indian chutneys.

Dahi Vada - Vada is a soft, fried lentil dumpling. These dumplings are dipped in beaten curd(dahi) and topped with Indian hot spices and different chutneys especially tamarind chutney. They are very popular in marriage parties in India.

Samosa - Samosa is fried pastry made up of refined flour. These are triangular in shape. The fillings consists of spicy potato mixture, basically. The mixture is accompanied by boiled peas and cottage cheese bits. The filling may vary from region to region. It may consist of cottage cheese entirely or ground lamb, ground beef or ground chicken etc. The super crispy treat is accompanied by Indian chutneys, especially tamarind and green chilly chutney.

Pav Bhaji - Pav means bread and bhaji means vegetables. Hence pav bhaji includes spicy vegetable blend in tomato gravy. It is served with pav (Indian buns). Pav bhaji is topped with lotto butter. It is basically a Maharashtrian fast food dish, but has again gained popularity all over India, just as other popular Indian street food.

Pani-puri - The more you describe, the more hungry you feel. Pani-puri consists of a round, hollow hard puri (small hard wheat flour fritter), crisp and filled with a mixture of flavored water (“pani”), tamarind chutney, chili, chaat masala, potato, onion and chickpeas. It is generally small enough to fit completely into one’s mouth. It is famous throughout India, though the taste varies from  region to region. 

 

Happy Independence Day!